First Snow!

December lost

I can't believe that I've let nearly all of December slip by without a post. Certainly there has been much to write about, but perhaps I've shied away because what's been going on is rather treacherous ground and not really my own to discuss. Uta's Grandma moved in with us. And before we could truly absorb all the changes her arrival brought, she was gone again. When she first came, Uta was ecstatic. Finally we can have even volleyball teams, he said. (This is not as random as it sounds. We have been known to hang a rope across our apartment and play a few rounds of volleyball with a balloon.) During her first few days in the city Uta dragged his grandma around introducing her to all his friends, teachers, and familiar neighborhood faces. His introduction went something like this, "This is my Grandma, she's going to live with us forever." Forever was a very real possibility, but it turned out to be a mere two weeks, a sort of marriage sabbatical. Hopefully her stay with us was the good medicine her marriage needed. We want what's best for her of course, though Uta might argue that what's best for her is to be with him, and he is certainly mourning his loss. (But don't worry, he's ok really, he just needs to gripe about it now and again.) Lets hope Grandma's New Year is full of new beginnings and lasting change.

Everyday is a good day (with legos)

Happy hour for Uta is constructing robots out of legos. It is his way of decompressing after school. I'm not sure how this happy go lucky idea of childhood got started but it certainly isn't the whole story. Being six has its stresses, maybe not about money, but stresses none the less (think schoolyard bullies and tattletales, Uta's school is ripe with them.) The difference is kids are not so attached to feeling crappy, build a robot, feel better, bad day done.